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M'Lord Christophe,<br>
<br>
After a while the material inside targets like these can become
compressed. I had a commercial "Yellow Jacket" target in my basement
for a while, and it got very hard in the center. Arrows were
bouncing out all the time. I recently shot with the folks from Caer
Mear and River's Point on a public range with special archery hay
bale targets. Our host Lord Briain said those bales became really
badly compressed when people used air-soft guns against them (which
they aren't supposed to do on this range, but get away with it). We
had only a few bouncers though. Our bale was pretty new.<br>
<br>
I finally retired my Yellow Jacket, shook out the stuffing (felt
again!), and used it to fill a cardboard bicycle box. Even though I
added several extra layers of cardboard inside the box, it isn't
hard enough and I now get blow-throughs. Since I shoot indoors, this
isn't a good idea. A smaller box packed tighter would work better.<br>
<br>
Right now I'm using a rubber cube target in the basement. Works
well, and the first face lasted more than a year. It will pull off
any points that aren't glued securely, or have any sort of lip at
the shoulder end (i.e. Ace faux-medieval points, of which there are
several buried inside the rubber now). <br>
<br>
I just bought Isenfir a "Morrell Outdoor Target" (that's what it is
called, no stock number) for about $100. It is an archery foam core
inside a coated burlap bag which weighs about 50 lbs. and is big
enough to hold our standard FITA paper target. Arrows came out
cleanly at our first shoot, and there was no "target gunk" like with
the pink or blue construction foam we previously used. Lord
Sebastiana G. Fanelli, with a bit of lumber holding from me (he has
all the cool power tools), built us a folding easel to hold this
monster. He used this target and easel combination in another
kingdom, and says the targets lasted for years. I'm really pleased.
I still have the easel plan, and if anyone wants to build this, just
let me know and I see that you get a copy. The total cost for the
stand was about $23, plus $4 for a pair of bungee cords to hold the
Morrell target to the stand.<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
<br>
Lord Mungo Napier, etc.<br>
<br>
On 5/3/2011 8:12 AM, John Atkins wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:001e01cc098b$5353b280$6501a8c0@CoGWorks"
type="cite">
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charset=ISO-8859-1">
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<div><font face="Tahoma"><span class="656490812-03052011"></span><font
size="2">I<span class="656490812-03052011"><font
color="#0000ff" face="Arial">nteresting Mungo. I have
had the same lack of sticking success with burlap bags
(peanut bags from the local steak house) stuffed with
plastic bags. Wierd 'cuz they work pretty well for a
while but then begin to reject arrow penetration. At
first I thought it might be because I had also slipped a
piece of cardboard down the front face to provide a flat
surface for the target face. But even with that removed
I still, on occasion, get the bounce back problem. </font></span></font></font></div>
<div><font face="Tahoma"><font size="2"><span
class="656490812-03052011"></span></font></font> </div>
<div><font face="Tahoma"><font size="2"><span
class="656490812-03052011"><font color="#0000ff"
face="Arial">BTW burlap bags stuffed with plastic
shopping bags are great targets that will last for a
couple of years.</font></span></font></font></div>
<div><font face="Tahoma"><font size="2"><span
class="656490812-03052011"></span></font></font> </div>
<div><font face="Tahoma"><font size="2"><span
class="656490812-03052011"><font color="#0000ff"
face="Arial">cog</font> </span><br>
<br>
</font></font></div>
<blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;">M'lady Lorelei and Noble
Friends of the Bow,<br>
<br>
At our last practice on 24 April we had a 10-yard prize shoot.
Our target was a leprechaun left over from St. Patrick's Day
(our March shoot was called because of snow). The idea was to
separate him from his gold by hitting the coins in his pot (1
point each), or the single coin in his hand (5 points). His pot
itself was worth nothing, and any hit even breaking a line on
the leprechaun himself was a minus 2 points. You can't kill a
leprechaun with arrows (they're immortals you know), but you can
make them really mad.<br>
<br>
So how did the shoot go? It was a miserable failure. The
leprechaun was made of felt in multiple layers, and even with a
40 pound bow, some of my arrows bounced off the target. Other
archers had nothing but bounces. So here's the lesson: FELT
TARGETS DON'T WORK! I called the shoot closed and we switched to
a Royal Round.<br>
<br>
This month we will massacre cutsy bunnies and chicks, but they
are NOT made of felt.<br>
<br>
To those of you who are curious, we usually open our practice
with a 10-yard prize shoot at some sort of novelty target;
usually two rounds of six arrows. The highest scoring adult and
youth each win a prize provided by Lady Sarah Sinclair and
myself (we shoot, but our scores don't count--we're trying to
get rid of the stuff in the prize bag). The previous month's
winners are also disqualified, so more people have a chance to
win. This is especially important for the kids, since one
pre-teen would win all the time. I announce the time for the
shoot on our email tree the week before practice, and nobody is
allowed to join in once the competition starts. This was a
positive way of getting all the archers to show up on time, and
it works much better than nagging.<br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
<br>
<br>
Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir TA Marshal<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
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